Don't Bet On It Belikov
by Nari Song
Summary: Come on" I said, using by best badass voice "I'll take you all on!" For a second the entire group looked at me and the next, most were rolling on the floor laughing. Great, I thought, more laughter. Could this day possibly get any worse?
1. Chapter 1

**Don't Bet On It Belikov**

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The sprain had been purely coincidental and very unfortunate, Dr Olendzki had said, as sympathetic as possible.

However I knew better.

I knew that unmelted piece of ice, probably the only one within a few miles of the academy, had been lying in wait, ready to stop me from nearly beating my best running time of the year so far. I had been doing the daily morning exercises with Dimitri, my all knowing mentor who had decided that it was now warm and safe enough and after winter to start going outside again. That was when I had slipped

How ironic and bloody annoying.

Now, after a large amount of swearing, a worried Dimitri and lots of pain later, I was stuck here. The white enclosure for unsuspecting innocents, whose only way out was through the greatest though kindest jailor ever. Her word was final and if you decided not to obey, then all the worst for you. Which happened to be the reason why my chances of getting out of here would probably be slim, I thought.

I scowled at the offensive devices being waved back and forth in front of me by said jailor. No way in earth was I going to be using those. Falling _through_ a bench was bad enough; I wasn't going to be seen dead or alive walking with those things. I heard the door to my room swing open but paid no attention. One sign of weakness and she may have them on me.

"Rose" Olendzki sighed, "It's only for a little while, just so you don't put too much weight on your foot."

I narrowed my eyes, and if possible my scowl became even more defined when suddenly a large hand fell on my shoulder and the smell of aftershave hit me.

"If you use them you'll get back to training quicker" Dimitri said in my ear, as I turned around and looked at him.

With his dark hair falling in strands over his face and the slight half smile he wore most of the time, he was as good looking as ever- and as annoying.

"Why do you always play that card?" I asked, crossing my arms, lifting my chin and sniffing in the most posh manner I could muster. "It's cruel, heartless and completely unnecessary."

Dimitri laughed as he stood from his stooped position.

"Because I know you, and I know it will work." He said crossing his own arms. "Training is too important to you."

I tried to look indignant and not at all like I was happy, even though I was. I liked that Dimitri actually understood me- one of the few besides my friends- it was comforting and wasn't one sided in the least either; I understood him more than most people too.

Failing the previous look most probably, I huffed, and let my eyes roll, turning back to Dr Olendzki.

"Ok Doc, I have, against my will, been forced to comply" I said, cringing as the pair of crutches fell into my hands and across my lap.

"She makes it sound like torture" I heard Olendzki mutter to Dimitri as she walked to stand beside him, out of my way, I guess in case I made the great crash of '09 in a 5m by 5m room, taking out two guardians and the bed at the same time. It wouldn't be surprising since I've never used crutches before. It was a new experience - just not one I was looking forward to.

"Not really. If she thought this was torture there would be much more noise and possibly outbreaks of violence." Dimitri replied leaning against the white wall.

Ignoring them, except for a slight glare shot in my mentor's direction, I placed the armrests of the crutches under my arms and placing the opposite ends on the ground, heaved myself to a standing position, balancing on one foot. Any celebrations that I would have made be in order were soon shattered though as the slippery linoleum floor sent my moving crutches shooting forwards and I soon found myself sprawled face down on the ground.

Before either the Doc or Dimitri had time to possibly move, think, breath or god help them laugh, I had my hand up and pointed at Dimitri, face still hidden.

"If you laugh, I swear to God I'm reporting you to Kirova for forcing me to undertake a very dangerous and even life threatening action."

"Oh, do you believe in God now" He asked, bypassing the threat, knowing it was empty. I could sense if not see the one risen eyebrow and the smile on his face, looking at me; the ever so elegant Rose Hathaway.

I'll specially make an exception" I said heaving my face of the ground and staring pointedly at him "Just for you, since I at least know that God _will_ be able to smite you where you stand."

Olendzki moved towards me with a worried expression on her face as Dimitri lost the fight to suppress the built up laughter. I groaned and let my head fall to the cold floor again, as his laughed echoed through the room.

"Are you alright Rose? Do you want some help to get up?"

With the risk of feeling more stupid than I already did I allowed her to get me once more to a standing position but fended off any more than that. I tried once more to move around and this time with much more success. I hobbled with as much grace as I could around the room in a repetitive _step_ _thunk_ rhythm.

By the time I had completed a full circuit, Dimitri was once again looking his normal slightly subdued, quiet self. I liked to think the threat had got through but I couldn't kid myself that much.

"Come on" he said moving to hold my shoulder, steadying me. "You have to get to your first class before your teacher decides to come looking for you."

I groaned as we walked out of the clinic and down the hall. I had hoped that my ever dramatic fall may have gotten me out of at least the first 2 periods of my academy schedule, but it mustn't have taken as long as I thought. Great, I thought, I get to make a complete idiot of myself in front of all my classes.

"I thought you had always wanted to learn Russian" Dimitri said, obviously hearing the groan and giving me his best hurt expression.

I scoffed, and shook my head when suddenly a brilliant idea jumped in my mind making me put on a bit of speed, increasing the _step thunk_ rhythm. Dimitri used to the slower pace stumbled slightly before regaining his perfect balance.

"A change of heart about Russian Rose?" he asked noticing the change. "That was rather quick"

"Oh yeah" I said, trying to look excited rather than mischievous. "I just can't wait to get to Russian, totally looking forward to it."

Dimitri looked at me suspiciously "Why-"

I cut him off.

"I can't believe I hadn't thought of it before, such a great idea!"

Now looking slightly worried I could see Dimitri searching his mind in an attempt to figure out why I suddenly wanted to go to class.

I turned to toward him, a grin on my face.

"The Russian classroom has dictionary's" I said. "Dictionaries have words in them"

Dimitri sighed exasperated. "I know how a dictionary works Rose."

I felt my grin turn evil and I raised an eyebrow, an ability I had finally managed after large amounts of practising, making me feel like a Belikov replica.

"Yes, but the thing about these dictionary's you see Dimitri, is that they have English to Russian translations" I said, "Which makes finding the Russian word of our English incredibly easy if one wanted to know what a particular word was" I finished, poking him in the chest.

Dimitri rocked back from the poke, onto his heels and I saw realisation light up his eyes seconds before a groan had him looking at the ceiling and shaking his head, leaving me to continue walking by myself.

"There won't be swear words in those dictionaries Rose" he said exasperated.

"Don't bet on it Belikov" I muttered without turning around, knowing he could still hear me. Not the slightest disheartned by his comment, I continued tramping toward my Russian class.

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****Hope you enjoyed. Please review. I hope to continue this.**

**-NS-**


	2. Chapter 2

Strings upon strings of swear words ran through my mind.

Russian, however, they were not. Though they were anything but nice.

_Apparently_, Guardian Belikov had suddenly needed _all _the dictionaries for an important project of his.

Personally, I don't know how it slipped the mind of the teacher that Dimitri _was _actually Russian himself. It definitely showed that something was seriously wrong with the teaching faculty here.

Or that Dimitri was very good at bribing.

God only knows how he got here before me anyway, _and_ managed to relieve the entire classroom of any scrap of paper worthy of the name dictionary. He must have had least broken the speed of light, as well as numerous other physic laws. All in a day's work for him I guess.

I now sat with what I presume to be a pretty damn scary look on my face, if the nervous glances which the teacher occasionally shot my way were any indicator. My ankle throbbed steadily, a dull pain, and already the skin under my arms felt sore from the crutches. Russian grammar from the book in front of me ran through my head and straight on out of it. I couldn't be screwed concentrating on class now- all was lost. My master plan was wrecked at the hands of an infuriating, frustrating, soon to be hurt very badly and-"

"It won't work" said a voice behind me, interrupting my evil plotting.

I put on the sweetest expression I could muster with the mood I was in, before turning around and looking at the speaker behind me.

"Oh really Mason" I asked. "Exactly what won't work?"

Mason, my partner in crime or whatever we happened to be doing at the time, sat behind me and was probably the only one who had yet to comment on the crutches. I was sure that angelic streak was about to crumble soon however.

"Whatever cruel torture you're thinking up for Guardian Belikov" he replied laughing as my expression now turned suspicious. "He came here about thirty seconds before you clunked-"

I shot him a glare.

-"walked in most elegantly and not at all nearly doing a nose dive into a desk,-"

I groaned. That had been humiliating.

"-ran about the room collecting all the dictionary's and disappeared seconds before you came in."

Recapping what had occurred wasn't making my mood any better.

"Don't worry" I said, narrowing my eyes. "I'll manage something painful enough so that he will be forced to hand the books over."

"What are you going to do..." he started, as I turned back to the front of the class.

"...bite his ears off?" another voice continued to my left.

I sighed. Soon this was going to become a whole class discussion and I'm pretty sure that the subject topic wouldn't get me A+'s for the class:

**How To Cause Pain: DIY Manual** by Rose Hathaway.

More like a D- and a sore butt after getting kicked out of the classroom. I focused my attention on the owner of the voice and the insanely stupid comment.

"Why the hell would I bite his ears off?" I asked Jesse, lowering my voice as the teacher gave me a strange look. "That's just weak."

"You don't have to, it's just a suggestion" he said shrugging, turning to the front. "I guess you could run after...oh sorry..." he said exaggerating the words and correcting himself. "You could _hop_ after him."

He turned once more to me "Don't worry; I'll have Dr Olendzki on speed dial, just in case you do a repeat of before." He smiled and tried to look innocent. "How's the forehead going?"

I scowled at his smiling face, thinking about the incident which had nearly put a permanent dent in my forehead.

In my rush to get to the classroom, for no point at all, I eventually realised, I had been going fast; nearly clocking 10km/h, according to Mason, who had had a front row seat to my complete inability to remain balanced. Through the door I had gone, and it was after I hit the edge of the desk with my crutch as I tried to move it forward, that I realised that the desk wasn't in the spot it usually was.

In the simplest words: I had tripped. What followed however made me feel like I had landed slap bang in the middle of a cartoon show with copious amounts of black humour aimed just at me.

With my first trip I had lost my left crutch, making me slam into the desk. In an attempt to keep balanced I had grabbed at the nearest thing, sending a pile of books, sweeping across the desk and scattered across the floor. Somehow, though I'm still betting on Jesse kicking it, my right crutch had skidded forward before I could come to terms with what was happening. In a repeat of before I had gone falling towards the desk to the right of me, taking out half the paper, pencils and numerous other classroom accessories with me before hitting my forehead right onto the desk. I had ended on my back looking up at the ceiling, covered in stationary of all sorts and with a blazing headache.

"Had a nice trip?"

Jesse had been the first to speak and I swear to God, they were nearly his last words too. Since I'd been lying on the ground like a beached whale, however, my death wishes had not been granted.

That didn't mean they couldn't be rectified though.

"Do you know what a very, very knowledgeable person once said Jesse?" I asked, coming back to the present and leaning towards him, slowly moving one hand toward a crutch by my leg on the opposite side of the desk.

Jesse's response consisted of a raise of eyebrows and a shrug which for some reason really bugged me.

"Before you criticise someone, take a walk in their shoes." He looked at me wierdly, probably wondering if I'd suddenly gone Zen, or just completely loopy.

"That way" I continued smiling sweetly. "You're a mile away from them _and_ you have their shoes!"

Jesse scoffed. "That's _very, very_ nice Rose and did you know that-"

I cut him off and he sighed heavily, probably already bored with the conversation.

"Do you know what he _also_ said?" I asked, dropping my sweet expression as I felt the crutch move into my hand. I silently thanked Mason. "If the person is named Rose Hathaway, however, expect major pain..."

I heaved the crutch from my side and swung it around, hitting Jesse full in the chest.

"... especially if there happens to be something _very_ heavy and possibly _very _harmful nearby!"

My victim winced as my makeshift weapon made contact. I knew he would have a bruise tomorrow. Knowing him, he would probably pass it off as being the result of some heroic action. Some stupid thing like saving a cat from a tree which it had got stuck up. By the next day it would be a burning tree, and the day after that a younger student instead of a cat, so goes academy gossip.

I turned to high five a laughing Mason, when the inconvenient voice of authority rang out from the front.

"Ms Hathaway!"

I dropped the crutch and in a second she was looming over my turned back from the front of the desk.

"Violence is not allowed against other students!"

My jaw dropped. No way was I getting community service because of Jesse. That would just be too much satisfaction in the wrong damn place.

Instead I bit my lip, hard, my teeth cutting through the soft skin. I felt tears build up from the slight yet painful action and I turned slowly around.

"I didn't mean to Miss" I stammered, putting on the stupidest and most embarrassing performance of my life. " I...I just wanted to get up to ask you something privately, but I've never used crutches before you see..."

I think I must have caught the teacher of guard. With the open mouth and wide eyes she was one step off having to rethink everything she knew in life. Rose Hathaway about to cry for hitting an idiot, what is this world coming too?

"..and..and.." I continued as I let the two or so tears which I had been holding, roll down my face.

By now the whole class had stopped. Except for Jesse, who still looked like he was in pain-I resisted the urge to break out of my act to tell him to get over it-, everyone was looking at me.

Fan-freaking-tastic, an audience to my dreadful show. They would probably want their money back afterwards.

I decided to send home my performance before Mason's stifled laughter, which sounded like he was choking on some dead rat, made me lose it myself. This _was_ pretty pitiful.

"...I'm sorry!" I finished, letting my head fall into my hands, making my shoulders move in pretence of sobbing, while laughing hard.

I should get an Oscar and a round of applause, regardless if it were for the worst or best show.

Fortunately, the end of my act also signified the end of the period. I quickly grabbed my crutches and bag, as the other students made their way toward the door, placing the former under my arms once again as Mason took my books.

We moved as fast as we could outside before the teacher could stop us and started toward our next class. As soon as we were out the door Mason moved forward to walk in front of me ushering anybody who happened to be walking in the opposite direction to the sides away from me.

"What are you doing?" I asked, spotting Lissa at the end of the student filled corridor. I waved as she spotted me and started moving up the corridor, toward me Mason.

"Not that I'm saying it was bad and all..." he said, turning his head to look at me as I shot him a suspicious look.

"...I just don't want any of your horrible acting skills brushing off on anyone." He grimaced. "I don't think I would survive the next time anyone did what you just did."

He laughed as I threw my Russian grammar book at him, ducking and then moving to pick it up.

Before I could throw a remark or anymore pieces of literature his way, Lissa was on me, followed by Christian. They could obviously walk quicker than I could.

"Rose!" said Lissa smiling, her happy self as usual. "How's your morning been?"

I'm certain my eye twitched as I recalled the last period, making me look slightly insane. Instead of kicking the nearest wall however, I swallowed and smiled widely.

"Great" I said, "Just great, very..." I searched my mind, trying to find the least abusive word possible.

"...nice." I finally forced myself to say.

Beside me Mason started laughing once more.

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**Hi-ho Here We Go! Hope You Enjoyed And Please Review!**

**-NS-**


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